IT WAS the fight of the year that raised £14,000 for charity - but left Eastleigh football club manager Paul Doswell in hospital.

Nearly 300 people cheered on two of Hampshire's top businessmen as they swapped briefcases for boxing gloves in a gruelling three-round competition.

The crunching fight between the "Ginger Destroyer," in real life Peter Robertson, a director of Condor Office Solutions, and Eastleigh FC's "Deadly Dossie" was the climax of an evening of boxing, eating and drinking at Southampton's luxury De Vere Grand Harbour hotel.

Guests from as far away as Manchester and Canterbury had paid £50 a head for the black-tie bash, which sold out in just two weeks.

At the end of the contest, dad-of-two Pete, 38, was declared the victor - and Paul, also 38, was rushed to Southampton General Hospital thought to be suffering from concussion.

He spent the night in a hospital bed being treated for a broken nose and fractured eye socket. He was released the next morning, but wasn't able to lead his team out against St Albans and watched the game from the stand.

Pete said: "It was the most exhausting sport that both of us have tried. Two minutes of punching as fast and hard as you can just totally drains you.

"We were more concerned with putting on a good evening and raising lots of money for charity, which we did."

The £14,000 proceeds will be divided up between the Wessex Cancer Trust, Wessex Heartbeat, Hampshire Autistic Society, Fairbridge, Leukaemia Busters and Southampton's Golden Ring Boxing Club.